An intake of several mature-aged recruits during the off season could see Essendon establish themselves as a benchmark-side this season, according to senior coach James Hird.

Speaking at Monday night’s 2015 Season Launch, Hird emphasised that the added experience could be the catalyst towards a successful finals campaign that has voided the Bombers in recent years.

"We identified at the end of the season last year that we had a group of senior players that deserved the right to be successful,” said Hird.

“And we looked at the age demographic of our list and where we needed to go, and we thought that we needed a bit more experience on the list.”

Brownlow Medallist and former Bulldog Adam Cooney topped the list of classy additions to the Essendon list, with Hird predicting a high-output from the marquee player this year in the red and black.

“We identified that we needed some outside speed and a guy that was highly talented and highly skilled and we were able to get Adam Cooney into the club,” he said.

“And I’m not sure how many of you have been out to training, but watching Adam training, it would suggest that he is not far off being back to his Brownlow Medal-best.

“We’re very excited to have another Brownlow Medallist at our club – along with Jobe – and he is a guy who loves his footy and has embraced the Essendon Football Club in a big way.”

In addition to Cooney, Hird praised the additions of ruckman Jonathon Giles and Shaun McKernan, as well as former St Kilda defender James Gwilt to the club.

“We wanted to help out our backs and James Gwilt was fortunate to be there and wanted to come to our club. Then we obviously needed some other ruckmen to replace Paddy and we were able to get both Shaun and Jonathon to come in,” said Hird.

“You can already see those players that have come into the club feel proud to wear the sash and the Essendon football jumper.

“We’ve got some young players that have come in, but we have some mature-aged recruits that we’re very excited about.”